Accession Number

2012.007.001.108

Description

One black and white photograph of two women dressed in lightly-coloured dresses, each holding babies of approximately twenty-four months of age. Each baby wears a lightly coloured dress. Behind the group is a painted wall with two windows and a door, and a wall-mounted hook. This background suggests that these people are on the deck of a steamship.

Narrative

The two women in this photograph might be employees of the James and Laura Dunsmuir family of Burleith, Victoria, B.C. The woman on the right is possibly Kate Austin, a nurse declared to be part of the James and Laura Dunsmuir family household in both the 1891 and 1901 federal census. She is likely the same woman depicted in 2012.007.001.076. 

The baby on the left resembles James "Jimmy" Guy Payne Audain (b. July 8, 1903), son of Sarah Byrd Dunsmuir and Guy Mortimer Audain, and the first grandchild of James and Laura Dunsmuir. The woman holding him might be his nurse or nanny. The 1911 federal census lists a governess in the Audain household as Rosalinde Hilda Worthington. The baby on the right could be Jimmy's aunt, Dola Frances Dunsmuir. 

The location where this photograph was taken is unknown. It might have been taken in or near India, where Jimmy's father served in the Indian Army. If this is the case the other child and the woman holding her/him may be connected with one of Guy Audain's fellow officers in the Indian Army.

History of Use

This photograph was taken in about the summer of 1905 and placed in an album created by the James and Laura Dunsmuir family at Burleith, their home on Victoria's Gorge Waterway. In 1906 it was probably taken by the family to Victoria's Government House where they lived while James served as British Columbia's eighth Lieutenant Governor. From there it was taken to the family's new house, Hatley Park, in 1910.

Sometime after Laura Miller Dunsmuir's death in 1937, the album became the property of Dola Frances Dunsmuir (also known as Mrs. Dola Cavendish) and was kept at her house Dolaura in Colwood, B.C. After hear death, the album was owned by her sister Kathleen's daughter, Judith Humphreys (also known as Mrs. Judith Joy). Her daughter donated the album to Craigdarroch Castle in 2012.

Date

circa 1905

Dimensions

9 x 10.8 cm

Support

Paper, Photographic paper

Country of Origin

Canada